Another Nearly Fatal Wakeboarding Accident

K-wood Kid

This weekend on the Guadalupe River, Bendle(Benny) Rushing was doing a speed whip and was flung up onto grass and then slammed into a brick wall. He was lucky enough to be wearing a helmet, but one of the jagged rocks pierced his helmet and cut the back of his head up pretty bad, he also broke his neck but is not paralyzed. He also shattered a bone in his wrist. He was knocked unconscious but woke up shortly after life flight arrived. He has a neck brace, some staples and stitches, and a wrist brace but is lucky enough to also have his life. He is in good spirits and at home with his dad and brother. He said he is going to be out for 6-8 weeks but can't wait to get out and ride as soon as possible. I'm going to bring him Shaun Murrays Pro Wakeboarder for PS2 along with some wake DVD's. If anyone wants to talk to him personally and give him some words of encouragement you can PM me for his cell phone number. I know he gets pretty bored sitting around the house so don't be discouraged.

On a lighter note, When I was on the phone with him, he was really mad that they cut his brand new pull over O'Neil vest off. I found it amusing that those were almost the first words he said to me about it.

JeffR · Addict Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 608 City: Victoria, BC

K-wood Kid, what is a speed whip?

QNev · Posted: May 14, 2007 7:38 pm Post subject:

Boat turns sharp, rider cuts outside. You go crazy fast.

What ever happened to that one injury thread from a while ago? There was a video called "redneck wakeboarding" and the same thing happened only the rider just flipped like 20 times and got back up?

Props to your buddy for taking it so well.

Seth818 · Criminal Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 69 City: Enid

sorry to hear... sounds like he will be at it again though. Major props for that...

Epic · Addict Joined: 21 Aug 2005 Posts: 765

Glad he was wearing a helmet. Sounds like without one it could have really been tragic. What a stud though excited about getting back out in 6 weeks.

K-wood Kid · Posted: May 14, 2007 10:08 pm Post subject:

The kid is def. a stud haha

Here is a picture of him from a few weeks ago when we rode.

inter · Addict Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 539 City: BC

wow... thats too bad

he sounds like a true wakeboarder Very Happy

Epic · Addict Joined: 21 Aug 2005 Posts: 765

Anthony Csogor · Outlaw Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 214 City: keswick

i love speed whips... not anymore though. Sad

Honestly though, i would even no what to do with a wall comming at me at that speed, darn, anyways.. best of luck!

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

Raider Lefty is the one who ate sh*t on a speed whip in Skiers Cove on Lake Lewisville in Dallas. I'm going to shoot him an email and see if he will repost it. I almost ended up a bow ornament on a new Bu at the other end of that same cove the same summer.

Anthony Csogor · Outlaw Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 214 City: keswick

I do speed whips all the time.. but never paid attention to really how fast you go.. so im curious.. how fast do you go.. 70? (km)

devon · Posted: May 15, 2007 7:20 am Post subject:

jt09 · Ladies Man Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 22083 City: Austin

I would think 70kph is attainable. That's 43.5 mph.

Raider Lefty · Soul Rider Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 470 City: The 713

Here's the link to my "Land Tantrum" video from 5 years ago.

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php/Zack-s-Land-Tantrum_wakeboarding-photos.html?medid=7104

QNev · Posted: May 15, 2007 8:10 pm Post subject:

Raider Lefty, YES! That's the one!

Epic · Addict Joined: 21 Aug 2005 Posts: 765

Maestro · Posted: May 15, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

I've had people do whips behind a seadoo and get out in front of it. To catch up to them I've had to do over 45mph - I think the fastest was 56... so yeah, you can get going pretty quick...

Blindside_137 · Posted: May 16, 2007 11:52 am Post subject:

I think there was a vid on alliance about speed whips behind sea doos and some people were clocked at 70mph I believe...

Wish the best to your friend...

jlaws · Addict Joined: 16 Sep 2006 Posts: 832 City: NC

i hate doing speed whips sooo bad :/ tooo fast for me i guess

K-wood Kid · Posted: May 16, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject:

Blindside_137, I forget where it as, but on Fuel or in WBM or somewhere they had a speed whip contest. I think Rusty won clocking in the high 70's. Crazy. Just be careful what is on the other side of the Whip.

LakeIolaLuke · Posted: May 17, 2007 5:48 am Post subject:

I think rusty hit 78-point-something mph. Shocked

Blindside_137 · Posted: May 17, 2007 11:12 am Post subject:

LakeIolaLuke, that would be point 5

http://alliancewake.com/video_details.php?id=544&page=9

LakeIolaLuke · Posted: May 17, 2007 12:23 pm Post subject:

Blindside_137, thanks

Blindside_137 · Posted: May 17, 2007 6:32 pm Post subject:

Sure thing.

Now Rusty, tell the camera you won't sue if you die...

shaggyboarder · Posted: May 18, 2007 9:48 am Post subject:

hope for a speedy recovery, but please guys watch out when getting sling shoted and be smart enough to not do it around things like land and docks and anything other than water. best of luck to your friend and good thing he was wearing a helmet.

dubbs2525 · Outlaw Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 122 City: San Antonio

The best wishes for Ben the only f***ed up thing is that i was driving when it happened and you talk about shocking, i even slowed down on the turn because we had told him a few days before to stop doing that because he didnt pay attention to where he could end up. I have been pulling riders for a long time now and never have i had something like this happen to me. I just wish i would have told him at the start of that day not to do it because of how narrow the river can get.

But he didn't get slung onto the land though, heres what happened, as i got to the point where we couldnt go any further down river (we have it marked with a jug for double ups) i made sure to turn so he would be on his heal side edge being he wasnt that great of a rider yet. I turned to the left and the back to the right so i could get farther away from the bank, well he started out on his edge as soon as a started the turn next thing we know is he looks up and sees a small peninsula that is made of rock for an edge and grass on top. He olied because it is about a 2 ft. wall, he skidded across the grass his toe side edge caught and the went into a flip which so happen to be the other side of the rock wall and he ended back up in the water. He was awake but not very coherent. We finally got someone up on shore to call 911. The doctor told us if it was for his helmet he would be dead or in a coma, and if it was for and some quick thinking, we put the landlock under him to stablize him, that he would paralized.

maxpowers1112 · Newbie Joined: 21 Jul 2006 Posts: 20 City: San Antonio

was that at lake dunlap?

marcg · Addict Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 944 City: Salt Lake City

We had soft sugar beach sand on a section of my older lake (big beach volley ball area etc. etc.) so it was very possible to ollie/ride up on the beach sand very far.

Had someone on my lake do a speed whip on PWC, he attempted an "ollie/ride up the beach"....he released a little too late into the whip and came in a bit too fast once he came a few feet up onto the beach his nose dug and he ended up doing a full on "Land Front Flip" (pretty damn big too).....people were freaking out when they first saw him flip....unscathed but we were laughing about it afterwards....I knew as soon as he released this was going to get UGLY....he said he knew it too...there really wasn't too much time to react he was going that fast, pretty much the point of no return.

He used to do this all the time behind the boat....this was some random he got a pull behind on the PWC...guess he came in a little too close gunned it a little too much on the turn.

It could have gotten real UGLY...there were palm trees all over the place...he made the full rotation on the front flip (HUGE) landed on the board and then fell down.

azatcher · Criminal Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 63 City: Elizabethtown

I have never heard of doing a "Speed whip" but there are several guys here who ride AROUND the boat in a complete circle, in some of the shows that we do at the local County Festivals. Is this similar except the rider does not go completely around the boat?

NautiGarrett · Newbie Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 25

dubbs2525 · Outlaw Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 122 City: San Antonio

YEa that was on Donlap

bonsaitree · Outlaw Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 198

Just thought I'd dig this thread up to give everyone an update! Ben is FULLY recovered! I was out on the water with him and some of our friends a couple weekends ago. He said the doctors have said hes already back to 100% and can go back to boarding. He told me he'd been tearing up the wakeskate for a couple weeks but it was his first weekend back on a wakeboard. The water was crappy and we had a storm headed for us but we rode anyways. Just before we were about to head in he tried a tantrum and almost landed it! Its amazing how quickly he healed and we're definantly all glad to have him back on the water!

FLWake · Soul Rider Joined: 21 Apr 2007 Posts: 274

Thats great, it always sucks to hear about somebody taking a bad beating but awesome that he is 100% and can get back out there if he wants. Just make sure you guys keep an eye out and don't let anybody over-do.